1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus, and more particularly to the processing of information for controlling a reproduction procedure of information data.
2. Description of Related Art
Now, the capacity of recording media such as a memory card to be used in a digital camera and an optical disk to be used in a digital video camera have been remarkably increased to be able to record various kinds of data with respect to moving images, audios and still images, and products using such memory cards and optical disks as recording media have increased. Moreover, such products has a feature of an editing function of re-arranging recorded contents or combining them by utilizing their random access properties, which video tapes can not attain.
The editing functions include a deleting function for deleting unnecessary contents, a partially deleting function for assigning unnecessary parts of contents to delete the assigned parts from the contents, a function for actually editing content data such as the division of contents and the combination of the contents. Moreover, there is also a method for recording reproduction control, information such as a reproduction procedure and a layout, and for reading data in accordance with the reproduction control information at the time of reproduction to reproduce the data. The method is an editing function called as a playlist generally.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-150503 (corresponding to U.S. patent application No. AA 2002051408) discloses an apparatus which detects an area which is not assigned by a playlist to delete the area simply.
Moreover, an article “What Blue-Disc Aims” (Nikkei Electronics 2003, 3-31 (No. 844)) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-157859 (corresponding to U.S. patent application No. AA 2002150383) disclose a managing method for producing a Real PlayList to all of the contents to be recorded and for rewriting the entries in the Real PlayList when the editing of the recorded content data (Clips) such as the classification thereof and the synthesis thereof is performed. Moreover, the method sets as a Virtual PlayList the above-mentioned playlist, or reproduction control information for an arrangement of arbitrary parts of the content data, which part a user recognizes as a work.
According to the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-150503, all of the data which is not selected in the playlist is deleted when unnecessary parts of contents are deleted. That is, because all of the data which is not assigned in the playlist is deleted according to the method, even if necessary data is included in the data which is not assigned in the playlist, all of such necessary data is also deleted.
On the other hand, it seems that such a defect is apparently removed by assigning all of the data in the Real PlayList as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-157859. However, for deleting unnecessary data, a user is required to assign the parts to be deleted.